Top Ten FAQs about Anne Boleyn

Several questions Iv seen about Anne Boleyn are did she have three nipples and more frequently, how old was she when she died? The three nipples is obviously connected to the rumours about her being a witch and are easily dismissed and as to her actual age when she died, no one knows! Some historians believe she was born in the beginning of the 16th c based upon her age when she travelled to Margaret of Austrias court and the letter she wrote to her father, also other factors like her increasing frustration at the slowness of the annulment and her fear that she was passing her fertile years, and more believe a little later, 1507 and this is said to tie in with Jane Dormers account of her death, (Dormer being a close friend of Anne’s step daughter the lady Mary) when she wrote she was twenty nine when she died, Sir Thomas her father also called her ‘ my daughter the little BouIlian’ when she was abroad but of course he may just have been referring to her petite bearing, she could also have being rather short but as she grew into adulthood she was described as of ‘middling stature, which today we call medium height, she certainly was not the youngest, that title belonged to George who most likely was born between 1504 to 1507, I must confess with the questions about Anne I find the subject of her age the most fascinating, and wether Henry V111 did order her shocking death at the age of just twenty nine or in her mid thirties, at twenty nine she was still fertile and could still have produced a healthy son, indeed in her mid thirties she could still have, although that would be considered too old in Tudor times, and only with todays advancement in medicine are much older mothers now having babies in their forties, another question often asked is ‘did she really commit adultery’, one only has to study the ridiculous charges against her to know they were complete fantasy, and were orchestrated by a paranoid king obsessed with getting a son on another woman and his evil minister, although there is one historian who believes she could have slept with Henry Norris the kings long time friend and her musician, no one will ever know the truth to that either, but she did swear on peril of her soul she never betrayed the king, Anne was hated by many because she ruined the life of the much loved Queen Katherine and she had sown the seeds of the reformation, she had ended the thousand year rule of the pope in England and several imminent man had died through her, she was seen as a destructive force a heretic and caused much hostility, but to those who were weary of the shackles of Roman Catholicism, who questioned what they saw as the corrupt influence of papistry she was much loved and revered, Katherine Willoughby whose mother had been Catholic, a lady from Spain and one of the previous queens attendants and close friend, found the new religion more to her favour, and the kings great niece Lady Jane Grey found Catholicism abhorrent, she went to the block rather than embrace the old faith, so Anne had many followers as well as enemies, but what we do know of Anne is because of the manner of her speedy fall and awful death, she garnered more sympathy and the king was viewed in rather an unsavoury light especially when he married her lady in waiting just two weeks later, from this fascinating woman many myths grew and with them plenty of questions which are found today on social media on websites and the common ones are what have been mentioned on this video, another question I read once was is Anne buried in Alysham in the churchyard of Salle next to her ancestors, this arose from a myth where on the eve of her death it was said her corpse was spirited away to rest with her Norfolk ancestors under a plain slab of stone, this myth was documented by Norah Lofts in her biography, of course the slab was lifted up one day and nothing was there, just earth, Anne’s corpse was buried in St Peter Ad Vincula and her remains were found in the reign of Queen Victoria, there were no extra fingers on her hands which were described as shapely as was her feet and her skull oval and an intelligent orbital ridge, her eye sockets were deep which collaborates the description of them as being large and quite distinctive, black and beautiful were how they were described, very enjoyable video Claire, many thanks